Creating a bootable CD

[FINPJENN]

Hi, I have just purchased Acronis True Image Workstation, with an aim at creating a bootable CD to restore my PC back to it's current state should I wish to restore the system.

I have looked through the Acronis site and support material, but I'm still not sure of how to go about this.

Can anyone give me some guidance? Much appreciated.

Many thanks

Phil

[TheQuest]

Hi, FINPJENN

Welcome to Wilders

with an aim at creating a bootable CD

When you first Install Ti you are given the choice to make the BootCD, if you do not make if at that time, you can make it at any other time by going to Start> All Programs> Acronis> Make Bootable Media.

Take Care,
TheQuest

[FINPJENN]

Hi TheQuest

Many thanks for your reply.

I have tried that, but the resulting ISO file is only 36MB, even though the total space taken up on the C drive is 4.6GB.

Is this correct or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks

Phil

[thomasjk]

Originally Posted by FINPJENN

Hi TheQuest

Many thanks for your reply.

I have tried that, but the resulting ISO file is only 36MB, even though the total space taken up on the C drive is 4.6GB.

Is this correct or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks

Phil

I just created a ISO file with TI9 B3677 and the resulting file size is 46MB. If you burn the image file to a CD/DVD the entire disk will be full regardless of the size of the image file.

[FINPJENN]

How can a 36MB ISO file restore a system that originally had 4.6GB worth of data on it's C: drive?

[Ralphie]

The bootable Rescue CD that you create does NOT contain a backup Image of your C drive. It is purely a CD to let you boot into True Image in order to perform the Recovery of your C drive Image which you previously made and stored elsewhere.
In fact the Bootable Rescue CD has the Backup/Recover/Clone features of the installed True Image software and I personally prefer to use it for these features rather than using the installed software running under Windows.

[FINPJENN]

Ah right, now I understand.

Is there a way to create an image of my PC, put it on a DVD and should I need to, boot from the CD and restore the system to the way it was on the DVD?

[Ralphie]

Yes there is a way to save a backup on to DVD. But trying to backup directly to any optical media is extremely slow. It is better to backup to another drive, internal or external, and then, if you must, use something like Nero or Roxio to burn the image to dvd.

[FINPJENN]

And forgive me for asking, but how do I create a backup which can then be burnt to DVD and would this be an ISO image?

Thanks for your replies.

Phil

[thomasjk]

Originally Posted by FINPJENN

And forgive me for asking, but how do I create a backup which can then be burnt to DVD and would this be an ISO image?

Thanks for your replies.

Phil

You create a backup image(*.tib file) by following the Backup procedure in TI. If you plan to burn the image to DVD then you will need to choose to "Set the options manually" and choose Archive splitting to set the size. This would be 4.7GB for a DVD. You can also split the archive into 1492MB hunks and put up to three on a DVD. This will not be an ISO image it will be a *.tib file. Quite frankly I believe you are better off creating the image on another hard drive either external or internal. If you choose to burn it to DVD after creating the image you can use Nero or other burning software of your choice.

[foghorne]

Originally Posted by FINPJENN

Ah right, now I understand.

Is there a way to create an image of my PC, put it on a DVD and should I need to, boot from the CD and restore the system to the way it was on the DVD?

I personally wouldn't trust an optical disk to store my images on. They can be difficult to store, difficult to backup-rotate, slow to access, prone to damage and unreliable. Get yourself a second harddisk. Optical media can have their place but only (IMHO) for secondary or tertiary copies.

F.

[Acronis Support]

Hello FINPJENN,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Workstation Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

As Ralphie explained, in order to create the image archive of your system, which includes the operating system, registry, drivers, software applications and data files, as well as system areas hidden from the user, you should use the Backup Wizard. You can find the detailed instructions on how to perform the backup procedure in chapter 6.2 "Backing up disks and partitions" in the Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation User's Guide.

Please also note that the latest build (3854) of Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation can write to DVD directly (no third-party software needed). You can write the image to a blank unformatted CD/DVD disc. If you use the re-writable disc, Acronis True Image will prompt you to format it and erase this disc.

In addition, when backing up to removable media (CD or DVD discs), you can make this media bootable by writing to it additional components. Thus, you will not need a separate rescue disk. Please check chapter 6.3.9 "Media components" for details.

If you have enough space on the hard drive to store the image archive you can use the procedure described by thomasjk: split the image archive into multiple files (Tools -> Options -> Default Backup Options -> Archive Splitting), store the image archive to the local or network hard drive and burn the archive to CD-R/RW or DVD+R/RW later.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

[jjbtnc]

also lots of info here

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showt...g+bootable+dvd